Following User Protocols
by Pirateweasel
Summary: Following User Protocols is a confusing process for programs; but they're going to do so. Even if they argue about it. Pre-Uprising 'verse. Part of the Grid Myths and Stories series...
1. RunTime Anniversaries

A/N-this came about because of a prompt challege created after a text involving fathers and birthdays between myself and Hack Generation.

* * *

"It should be me," Tron said, stubbornly. "I should give it to him."

CLU cast a baleful eye at the older program. "Wrong. I should give it to him. After all, I'm the one who coded it…"

"I've known him longer," the security program said, protesting, "So I should do it."

"Tron, you may have known him longer…but _I_ know him better." The look on the sysadmin program's face was smug at that statement. "I am a coded likeness utility…_his_ coded likeness utility."

Tron's face flushed at that statement. "Yes, he's your User…but he's still been my friend for longer," he insisted. "I want to give it to him."

The 'it' in question sat on the console between the two arguing programs, its code passively waiting to be loaded for transport or transfer.

It was the first of its kind on the Grid; not even the system's User had coded such a thing before. It waited, its icing glistening in the ever-present glow of circuits. Never before had someone changed the coding of energy to have it manifest as a solid object—much less a solid form of energy that could still be processed fully. There was a faint glow emanating from it that belied its origin as being energy-based.

It was the Grid's first and—so far—only cake.

"You wouldn't even know the protocol for User run_cycle anniversaries if I hadn't told you about them," CLU said, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "I'm the one giving him the cake…he's my User, I know him better, and I CODED THE CAKE!"

Looking at the crest-fallen look on the face of the program who was his friend and the head of the Grid's security, CLU sighed.

It wasn't entirely fair of him, even if CLU had made the cake…

Tron would have cheerfully done something special for Flynn if he had known the User's run_cycle anniversary; however, there was no way for the other program to gain access to that information on his own. Or for him to have coded up a cake even if Tron had known the protocols involving User run_cycle anniversaries…he simply didn't have the function coding or the permissions to access that function.

"Look," CLU said finally, "what if we both give him the cake? Maybe afterwards you could let him beat you in a lightcycle match again?"

Tron froze at the last words spoken. The corners of his mouth made a small move up.

"You knew?" he asked.

"Tron, as good as Flynn is on a lightcycle…he's never once beaten you in a lightcycle match; and the only way that he's won lightcycle races against you is that lightcycles run faster when they are drawing from User power," CLU told him, his voice firm. "And no, he doesn't realize that you occasionally let him win."

"You're not—"

"Going to tell him?" The administrator program shook his head. "No. That would take all of the fun out of it for both of you."

So, the cake… Are we going to do this together, or not?"

The two programs turned their heads to regard the 'cake' that was still resting on the console between them.

"Yes," the older program replied. "Let's do it together. You should carry it, though. You coded it."

Nodding, CLU carefully picked up the platter that held the cake and began to make his way to the door. Tron followed a short distance behind, catching up and walking next to CLU once they were both past the door.

"What flavor did you code it for?" he asked CLU.

"Sushi," came the cheerful reply. "It's one of his favorite User foods."


	2. We Made You a Cake

A/N-The timing on this was unexpected, however...Merry Christmas.

* * *

"Flynn!"

Kevin Flynn looked up from the lines of code he was reviewing. Did someone say—?

"Flynn, we have something for you!"

Behind him, Kevin Flynn could hear the voices of his two best friends on the Grid calling him. He turned around to see them walking closer; CLU with his hands behind his back as though holding something out of sight. Tron was walking next to the system administrator, a broad grin spreading across Tron's face to match the proud one on CLU's.

"Hey guys," Flynn said. "What's up?" He always enjoyed seeing and spending time with the two programs. It had been a surprise when he emerged from the arcade to not find Tron waiting for him. Instead, one of Tron's secondary security programs had been there, informing him that the system's head security monitor was required elsewhere.

"I reviewed the memory files I received when I installed into the system and learned about User run_time anniversaries," CLU told him. "When I learned about the appropriate protocols for observing them, I discussed it with Tron. We agreed we should follow the protocols and observe your run_time anniversary."

The two programs looked at each other for a moment and then CLU revealed what he had been hiding behind his back with a flourish.

"Happy run_time anniversary, Flynn!" they chorused, looking rather pleased with themselves as CLU held out a cake.

A cake.

Here on the Grid.

With all the things Flynn had anticipated or wondered about concerning building the system, somehow this happening had never occurred to him. He looked down at the cake, unable to keep the surprise from his face.

The cake had the faint glow to it that let him know it was formed of energy; which made sense, there would be no other way to ingest it in the system otherwise. It was slightly-lopsided, with icing spread unevenly across it. It looked familiar….

It looked like the cake he had baked for his Mom's birthday when he was eight years old.

It was an oddly straight-forward reason for the cake's appearance that came to his mind. _Of course,_ Flynn thought_, CLU would have picked the cake that I had the strongest memories of…._

He looked up at the faces of the two programs in front of him, their smiles beginning to fade a little around the edges as they watched him. It was a lot like seeing Sam standing there, uncertainty in his eyes as he wondered if whatever it was he had made would be accepted.

The effect was disconcerting, and somehow, when seen on his face—CLU's face—almost heartbreaking.

"Wow," Flynn said, smiling. "Look at that. That is something…." There was no way he was going to leave that look on CLU's face.

"It's a cake," Tron announced, proudly.

"It sure is," Flynn agreed, "This is impressive. Did you make this, CLU?"

That eager, proud look was back on CLU's face.

"Yes," the sysadmin said, excitedly. "It's an exact replica of the cake in your most reviewed memory files."

"Well. It sure is," Flynn said. It was a good thing that he was meant to be smiling, he thought to himself. It was impossible to not smile at the innocent pleasure the two programs were showing at their ability to surprise Flynn with a cake.

"Are you going to eat it now?" Tron was asking. "CLU made it in one of your favorite flavors."

"Why not?" Flynn said, agreeably. "Cakes are meant to be eaten." He looked around the room in the central processing unit until he spied a console with an uncluttered surface. A moment later, he was settling the cake down and stepping back.

"CLU, would you do the honors?" he asked, indicating that his program double should use his disc to cut the cake.

* * *

One large bite of cake later….

"How did you pick the flavor for the cake, again?" Flynn asked around a mouthful of cake, the smile frozen stiff on his face.

"It's sushi! I learned that it was one of your favorite User foods!" CLU replied.

Still holding the smile on his face, Flynn swallowed, the mouthful of cake disappearing as he did so.

"It does taste like sushi, doesn't it?" CLU asked, suddenly nervous.

"Exactly like sushi," Flynn told him, reassuringly. "I have never had a cake that tastes more like sushi than this one."

The program visibly relaxed at the words, going back to happily devouring his portion of the cake. Next to him, Tron was also eating a slice of cake, the sharp planes of his face framing a large grin as he did so.

Kevin Flynn took a deep breath and looked back down at the cake held in his hand.

_Sushi cake_, he thought to himself. _Well, Mom always said that you will do surprising things when your friends and family make a cake for you…although I thought I would have to wait a few more years for Sam to be the one baking._

He smiled again, and took another bite of cake.

* * *

A/N-for my folks; who cheerfully ate every cake I baked as a child...no matter how badly I screwed up the recipe.

(No, really...some of them did not truly qualify as cakes)


	3. What Is Christmas?

A/N-The title of the chapter tells you when I was trying to write/post it.

Until a certain program figured out what I needed to be doing on Christmas.

* * *

Tron was waiting for Flynn the moment the arcade's door opened.

Kevin Flynn looked up to see his oldest friend on this side of the screen; a slow, easy grin on his face spreading at the welcoming smile that Tron flashed at him.

"Greetings, program!" Flynn said, teasing Tron with his usual greeting.

There was a small sigh before Tron spoke.

"I have mentioned that's not actually what we say when meeting each other," Tron told him mildly.

"Ah, this is more fun; especially when you make that face."

The tall security program nodded slightly.

"I thought you were not going to visit the Grid during this User interval," he said, his tone questioning. "Something about a User celebration?"

"Yeah, Christmas," Flynn replied, looking away for a moment. "Hey, I want to see if I can code up a Christmas tree or something…."

"Flynn?"

"Yeah, Tron?"

"What is Christmas?"

Flynn turned back to look at Tron.

"What?" he asked, startled.

"What is Christmas?" Tron repeated, patiently. "What is the purpose of the User celebration?"

"What is— Um, well…" Flynn scratched the side of his nose and ducked his head. Looking back up at his friend, he spoke.

"Well, it's a User celebration that originated to honor the birth of a special child and show that people were glad of the 'gift' of the child." He looked around the stark, glowing lines of the Grid as though searching for someone else to take over the explanation. Seeing no one else nearby, Flynn began speaking again. "Nowadays, it has become a time when families get together to show that they care about one another. Usually, you give a gift as a sign of love and appreciation. It doesn't have to be big, or elaborate—just something that show you spent time thinking about what that person likes."

Tron wasn't moving, his face thoughtful.

"So, this _Christmas_ is spent with family?"

"Usually, yeah…"

"And—from what you told me previously—families are groupings that are joined by close relationships; like you and your dedicated partner…Jordan?"

There was a small, pained tightening of the skin around Flynn's eyes at hearing his late wife's name.

"Yeah," Flynn said, his voice a little rough. "Jordan and I were a family; and then our family got a little larger when Sam was born."

"So, your son was also your family. Is he still family even though you are no longer connected by the link of your dedicated partner?"

"Of course he's family! You don't stop being family, Tron. That's what being part of a family is about…we're always there for each other." Flynn told the security monitor, his voice both a little surprised and heated at the suggestion that his son might no longer be family.

Tron stopped, standing in the middle of the almost empty plaza, the slightly far-off, almost distracted look on his face that said he was running several intricate logic processes at the same time plainly visible to Flynn. Before Kevin could wonder exactly _what _it was that Tron had been thinking, the security program snapped back to attention.

"Come on," he said, grabbing Flynn's arm and pulling him off to the side. "I need you to code up a short-cut to the portal…right now. You can make it a temporary one if you want; however, you need to code it _NOW_. We have to get you to the portal immediately."

"What's wrong? I can—" Flynn began, only to be cut off by Tron.

"You can fix everything from the other side, Flynn, but I need that short-cut." Tron's voice was adamant, allowing for no argument.

Kevin knelt down and, casting a worried look up at his friend, began accessing the base code of the Grid to write the short-cut. It was a hurried job, nothing pretty to look at; however, it would allow them both to reach the portal faster than anything else in the system.

As soon as the last lines of code were solidly in place, Tron was heading into the short-cut; dragging Flynn along with him.

* * *

"Would you just tell me what's going on?" Flynn tried to yell, even as he caught the baton that his friend tossed to him; only to have to rezz up his lightcycle to catch up to the one that was already shooting through the tunnel of the short-cut at a breakneck speed. A picocycle later, Flynn was pulling his lightcycle level with Tron's. Once again, he tried to get Tron to tell him what was happening; why they had to reach the portal when he had just entered the system. The only answer he received was a quick shake of the head and a resolute look on Tron's face as the system monitor accelerated again and began to pull further ahead.

Several nanocycles later, they reached the end of the short-cut. Tron was off the light-cycle immediately, not even bothering to derezz it back into its baton form before leaping up to catch one of the ladder rungs that lead to the system's surface and beginning to climb."

"Tron!" Flynn called, beginning to worry and feel exasperated all at the same time. "Buddy, would you just tell me what's happening?"

Tron's voice came echoing back down to him. "We have to reach the portal, Flynn! There's no time to lose!"

Worried now, Flynn grabbed a ladder rung as well and began to climb.

When he neared the surface, there was a black-gloved hand waiting to help pull him up. "Hurry," came the tense command. Together, they both ran to the edge of the portal's beam.

"What's wrong?" Flynn said, turning to face his friend as he pulled his disc off in preparation for activating the portal. "What do you need me to do when I get out there?" Next to them, the portal was a roar of sound and light that seemed to make its way into their very being.

"You said Christmas was a time for families and friends," Tron told him. "That the gifts you give should be something that you believe the other will enjoy receiving…"

The tall monitor program grabbed Flynn's jacket and pulled him closer; close enough for Flynn to hear him say, "This is my Christmas present to Sam…tell him that for me…" right before Tron _shoved_…

Flynn felt himself fall backward into the portal's beam, felt the portal read his disc and activate—taking him apart and porting him back out of the system…

* * *

He came back to himself with a gasp, almost falling out of the desk chair when he did so. It was a moment before he recalled Tron's last words to him.

_"This is my Christmas present to Sam…tell him that for me…"_

Flynn ran his hand over his face as he realized what Tron had done…and what he had done.

Kevin had left his son alone on the first Christmas without his mother. Jordan would have chewed a strip off of him for skipping out of a family holiday, yet he had tried to do just that. He blinked back tears as the thought of his wife sent a fresh pang of loss through him.

Kevin wouldn't have his wife around this Christmas; however, Sam had almost spent the first holiday since her death without _both _of his parents.

"I screwed up, babe," he said to the empty room. "I screwed up bad. If Tron hadn't…" He stopped, and a wry chuckle slowly, quietly crept out of him.

"Trust that stubborn security program to figure it out," he mumbled between chuckles. "He understood what this holiday was about before I did…"

Kevin took a deep breath and stood up, the chair sliding back as he did so. He looked down at the lights blinking at him on the monitor screen of his desk and, in a soft voice said, "Merry Christmas, Tron." He turned and walked to the door of his private lab. He had a son to spend Christmas with…because that was where he belonged on Christmas.

Behind him, three glowing words appeared on the monitor screen….

"Merry Christmas, Flynn…."

* * *

A/N-Happy New Year, everyone.

PS. The idea for the 'short-cut' came from one used in Shirozora's excellently written work, "We Are Pilots".


	4. This Is Halloween

Halloween on the Grid...if you can catch up with the idea...

* * *

"That can't be right..." The voice heralded the sound of booted footsteps as two programs came into view, walking down the avenue that led to Flynn's arcade. "Why would Users act like malware to demand more energy supplements? It makes no sense."

"I'm telling you, Tron, that's what the file shows." CLU's presence was announced by the bright yellow glow of his circuits, highlighting the hand he waved at the slightly taller system monitor walking beside him. "When the User world goes through a period of increased darkness for this time-stamp, Users disguise their renders and demand energy supplements, or 'treats' from other Users living nearby. Failure to offer the supplements leads to 'tricks' from the disguised Users."

Tron was shaking his head at this information. "But what is the point of disguising their renders? Without disguising their tag-reads, everyone would know who was demanding these 'treats' or threatening with 'tricks'. There is no point...no User would open the door to them and the Users would then know who could not be trusted."

The system monitor's tone was exasperated and slightly grumpy from the thought of Users acting like malware when they could be so easily identified. It was as though he felt it was a personal affront for someone to attempt to be a disruption, whether or not the disruptive force was in the system or not.

"See?" Tron was saying, "...Pointless."

CLU kept walking towards the arcade. The light of the portal had been shining long enough that Flynn should be nearing the street entrance to the arcade very soon. Maybe his User could explain to Tron more about this User holiday...CLU certainly wasn't having much success doing so.

"Tron, Users don't have tag-reads when they aren't on the Grid," CLU told the other program, frustrated by the gaps in knowledge regarding the Users that his friend had. It made things so difficult to discuss sometimes. First, figure out what information CLU had, then what information Tron didn't have, then try to find a way to fill in the gaps—which usually led to the discovery of more gaps in Tron's information files. Letting Flynn expand Tron's information base was the easiest option to take in most instances.

The sparingly-lit form near CLU came to an abrupt halt. Tron turned back to look at the system administrator program, disbelief clearly showing on his face.

"No tag-reads?" he asked. "How do they know for certain who they are dealing with then? Any malware-behaving User could take advantage of them by pretending to be someone they trust! And then they have an entire holiday dedicated to doing just that!?"

The system monitor was obviously horrified, the security coding in his base code recoiling from the thought of not being able to trust anyone around him...not even on as simple a level as confirming their identity when they were standing next to him.

"I don't think that's how it works," CLU began to say, before noticing the arcade's door moving slightly. "Oh good, Flynn's here; he can explain it...he wants to do something like what they do in the User world here on the Grid during this visit."

Tron's head swung back and forth between staring at CLU and the now-opening door to the arcade; a look of near-panic crossing his features.

"Flynn wants to do what? Here?"

There wasn't enough time for CLU to reply; Flynn had already joined the two of them as they stood there, Flynn's usual "Greetings, programs!" making it impossible for Tron to have heard anything that CLU would have said.

"Hey, guys! Ready to give trick-or-treating a try?" Flynn turned towards CLU with his next question, "You did tell Tron about Halloween, right?"

"He did," Tron blurted out, " and...I'm so sorry you have to live without trust, Flynn!" He grabbed Flynn and said, "I'll make certain you can trust all the programs around you—you can know you're safe, even if they do act like malware!"

With that said, Tron dropped his grip on Flynn's shoulder and turned back to the street, rezzing up a lightcycle as he did so.

Moments later, Flynn was blinking at the sight of his oldest friend in the system disappearing into the distance. He raised his hand and pointed after Tron, speaking to CLU as he did so.

"Did he just—?"

"He did," CLU confirmed. "He's off to protect you from Halloween on the Grid."

"But I thought you were going to explain it to him..."

"I tried," CLU said, not sure if he was amused or tired of watching Tron try to understand User protocols. "There seems to be a missing element in the information transfer. You seem to have better luck in that respect."

Flynn nodded his head slightly, the faint blueish light from the circuit lines of the nearby buildings showing him clearly.

"You did at least warn him about trying to scare each other, right?"

CLU's grin was a little rue-full at that point. "Funny thing, we were still getting to that point..."

"Oh me oh my," Flynn said, a grin growing on his face as he spoke. "Well, I think we should catch up with Tron before he finds the Halloween decorations I coded for the administration complex before I came here."

At that news, CLU's grin grew even wider. "Flynn," he asked carefully, "what did you do...?"

* * *

A/N-a ridiculous bit of drabble because I couldn't sleep.


	5. Thanksgiving

A/N-Obviously, this was originally meant to be posted for the Thanksgiving holiday...

* * *

"No, Flynn. I'm not going to install that as a Grid update. It's pointless and will only lead to lagging..."

"CLU, it's just once a cycle and it's important—"  
"Why, Flynn? Why is it so important to you?"

Kevin Flynn paced around the small control room in the administration building. It would have been dizzying for anyone else to watch, as lines of light from the soft glow of the wall and floor circuits fell across what appeared to be a pair of identically dressed, identical twins; once pacing restlessly, the other standing with his arms crossed over his chest and a look of faint annoyance on his face.

Kevin rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and turned to face CLU again. "Users make it a point to spend one day out of every year to give thanks for all of the good things in their lives. It's important to spend that day doing so—it's important to remember all the things we have to be thankful for."

"So, this is a User thing, this...'Thanksgiving'," CLU said, dryly. "This has nothing to do with programs, Flynn. I'm not going to install it."

"Everyone needs to set aside some time to remind themselves of everything that they are thankful for, CLU—"

"NO, _USERS _need to remind themselves, Flynn. Not programs. We're not Users." The faintest trace of annoyance now slid around the edges of CLU's voice.

"Programs don't need to set aside time to remind ourselves that we are thankful for something. We are always aware that everything we have, everything we are...was created by someone else. We don't need reminders because we can never forget."

"Thanksgiving is for Users, Flynn. If you can forget what you are thankful for—even for a petrocycle—then you still need your Thanksgiving protocols."

* * *

A/N-Flynn doesn't understand everything about the Grid, even if he did create it. CLU keeps getting reminded of the differences between Users and Programs; he's also starting to lose a little of the ever-present awe that Programs have for their Users.


End file.
